an idealized Number Card and, I think, the pins that were supposed to read it.

Tags:   Turin Torino Academy of Sciences Italy Italia Charles Babbage Carlo Babbage Analyitical Engine punchcards Macchina Analitica Difference Engine Macchina alle Differenza

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Charles Babbage left a computer program in Turin in 1840

In autumn of 1840, Charles Babbage arrived in Turin for a meeting of Italian scientists, where he gave the only public explanation of the workings of his “Analytical Engine.” This machine was the mostly-imaginary upgrade of Babbage’s failed “Difference Engine.”

At the Accademia della Scienze di Torino (which was once run by Babbage’s host in Turin, Prof. Giovanni Plana), they still have all the paperwork that Babbage brought with him to Turin, which Babbage left behind as a gift for Plana and his associates.

These documents includes charts, engineering plans, lecture notes, a bunch of pencil-scribbled calculations on what seems to be leaves neatly sliced out of Babbage’s own notebooks, and, well, also these punch-cards.

Tags:   Charles Babbage Carlo Babbage Italy Italia Turin Torino Analytical Engine Difference Engine program punchcards 1840s Accademia delle Scienze di Torino

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Here's the Gomi-no-Sensei and I getting a look-in for our Babbage alternate history; our tiny footnote in the ever-growing legend, and all that

Tags:   Italy Italia Turin Torino computers calculators 1840s docs specs The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Charles Babbage Carlo Babbage William Gibson Bruce Sterling The Difference Engine ucronia macchina analitica dead media

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A British watermark: Britannia with her shield and helmet

Tags:   Italy Italia Turin Torino Babbage

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